


love without consuming

by Cicadaemon



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: East Anglia Arc spoilers, F/M, Female Eivor, Hytham is hopelessly in love and doesn't get it yet, Light Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:22:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28866216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cicadaemon/pseuds/Cicadaemon
Summary: Eivor returns to Ravensthorpe after installing a king on the East Anglian throne and has a conversation with Hytham about it, amongst other things.
Relationships: Eivor/Hytham (Assassin's Creed)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 73





	love without consuming

Eivor, who had arrived that morning with silver in her pockets and alliances to declare, had spent the better part of her free afternoon recounting the kingmaking exploits in East Anglia. Randvi was preoccupied and Eivor had decided to spend that time waiting with him, a great honour. Hytham had listened as he went about his records and scrolls, pausing when the beats in the story required it.

If there was only one thing he was allowed to praise Eivor for, it would be the way in which she could shape words with such ease into something so colourful and enchanting. He had never met anyone who seemed so skilled at speechcraft such as she was, and it had always been a delight to see Eivor walk into his bureau ready with another tale.

“This new world is a curious thing,” Eivor had said as she had finished the last bits of her tale, a wedding and an exile. “It amazes me how these people live such different lives as oppose to our own. Watching Oswald with both a righteous fight and compassion in him give Rued a mercy I could not give was moving to say the least.”

“Different lives?” Hytham prodded, curious to hear what she thought.

"It’s hard to put into words, but to be an outsider looking in is such an interesting perspective. With the Danes, I feel almost at home, but among the Saxons, I feel sometimes lost. But still, there is a kinship to be found. I often find myself respecting them and their convictions. Though I will admit I do not often get them. Oswald confused me and I obeyed his desires but that does not mean I understand them now.” 

The smile that played upon her lips was enough to make his breath come with a struggle. Not that was hard to do as he had often used it as an excuse. Kjotve had made good work of him with just a single throw; Hytham had found himself struggling for breath, wheezing and coughing as Basim had tried to attend to his wounds. It wasn’t until they had arrived back in Foxburn, before Basim’s own departure that Hytham got any real attention. It had been long days amongst people he scarcely knew and could scarcely relate to. 

So, Eivor’s comment was enough to make him chuckle. “You are forgetting who you are talking to. I may seem a friend to you, but I am still a stranger amongst your people. I am often at a loss myself, not understanding your motivations and ideals on a cultural level. Just as you may not understand the motivations and ideals of other strangers. What is important is respecting them, which you have stated you already are doing. That is often enough.” 

“Do you find yourself uncomfortable here,” She asked, looking concerned. “I have to apologize, I never thought about you in such a way. Or I should say I have not thought about you in such a way for some time. You have so easily settled amongst us I forgot that you and Basim were originally outsiders. Or you still feel you are.”

He waved his hand as if to swat away those worries. “No, not at all. I find myself missing home sometimes, but I had been wandering with Basim throughout the Caliphate for some time before we met your Sigurd. This is not my first time feeling out of place. It will pass with time.”

Eivor nodded at that, fiddling with a scroll that laid on the table. “It is funny, amongst all these friends and family, I turn to a so-called stranger to share my thoughts with. As though he were a brother.”

“I do not think you need more brothers,” He tried to tease, aware that he could slip up. As much as he knew Eivor and Sigurd considering the time he had spent with both, their relationship with each other was something foreign to him. Still, he could not let his tongue rest. “Sigurd seems more than enough in that area. If I have read the both of you right.”

She chuckled at that. “In that you are right. He is a fine brother, but perhaps I am greedy. Perhaps my goal here in England is to expand my family till it is so large it encompasses all the kingdoms.”

“A lofty goal. Then I feel honoured that I am one of the first in your quest.” He responded, happy to have Eivor turn it into a joke instead of trying to defend her relationship. There was a beat, and then laughter, the whole thought ridiculous to the both of them. In his own mirth, Hytham could not keep himself from appreciating Eivor’s laughter, a rich and beautiful sound. It awoke a sense of balance and reverence in him almost akin to that of the Adhan; calling him towards the source of its sound. 

“Can I just say,” Hytham said as their laughter had subsided, “That I think it was very brave of you to put aside what would be considered right in your own way and to follow this Oswald’s way. You were in your right as a Nord to strike this Rued down and yet you did not. Even though it is what would have been asked of you. You had just as much of a right on his life as you did Kjotve’s and you didn’t.”

She hummed, though there was the familiar shadow in her expression, unsure if her actions had been the correct ones despite her words. “It was only right to let Oswald do as he saw fit. It was his land, his people and his way. To go against him at the beginning of his reign would tarnish our alliance with him and his legacy. That sort of defiance would follow him till that crown would be passed onto his son. It could very well of haunted his heir and those who followed till the end.”

“But you doubt if it was right?” He pressed. She looked at him shocked for a brief second, before nodding. “Perhaps I am not much of a stranger as I have thought. You are easy to read, Wolf-Kissed as though I have known you for years. Or perhaps it is because I know that struggle well enough to see it mirrored in you. I find myself again in your place. I doubt many of my actions, what was right and what was wrong. I have come to the conclusion that there is no changing what was done, and to learn from our successes and defeats.”

“I feel you are steering this towards Kjotve.”

He nodded, “You are correct. I find myself wondering if my actions were right or wrong. They have left their mark on me in both body and soul, but there is no taking back what I have done. The only thing I worry about now is the slight I might have caused on you. You had a claim on Kjotve and yet I did not heed.”

“Is this you trying to apologize?” Eivor pushed away from the table and made her way over to Hytham, her footsteps sure and steady. “Because I never felt a slight. I understood that you had your own goals-”

“-My Creed willed me to defy your request," He said, cutting her off. It was important he put this at the forefront for the first time since the incident. "I ignored what it meant to you and what it meant in terms of your honour and what it meant to your people. Despite what you might feel, it has forever stained our relationship and no matter where we go from here, it will remain.”

There was barely any space between them now and for not the first time Hytham was aware of just how big Eivor was. She was not a tall woman just as he was not a tall man, but her presence filled the room in a way a larger man or woman could not. It was also in a way Hytham could never. It was almost suffocating to feel it and yet invigorating.

“I do not see that stain, Hytham. Its presence means nothing to me. I understand the lesson you are trying to teach, how my doubt is your reality. That one must conform to the rules of strangers when it matters most, and while it is a lesson I heed, it is not something I feel you should carry. Know this well, I see you as a friend and not a trespasser.”

He felt the desire to clasp her face between his hands and kiss her deeply. But he didn’t. Of course he didn't. Hytham had no right to do so. Instead, he had stood there brimming with emotion and not given the chance to act before a shieldmaiden had poked her head into the door to tell Eivor that Randvi was looking for her. And that intoxicating presence left his bureau with a quick goodbye, but not before ducking her head back in for one quick moment.

“I did mean what I said before, by the way. About my preferring your company to many others. Hytham, it is a funny thing how there was once an ocean so great between us and yet I feel an even greater kinship with you. You are more than a brother to me. I hope you feel the same.”

Was it a confession of love? He doubted it. Eivor was kind in all ways, and her kindness extended to so many. Her words were proof of that. So, he had smiled and returned said kindness.

“Of course. You will always find a friend in me, Eivor.”

And then she was gone. And he felt her absence more profusely than the pain in his lungs that never left.

A funny thing indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely adore these two as a ship and was shocked to see once again I am shipping something with barely any fics. So obviously I had to fix that a bit.
> 
> I do love that Hytham went from "who the hell is this and why are you giving away our secrets" to "I literally will be over here overwhelmed with feelings for you because you are literally amazing". I did hint a little at what I think was Hytham's lasting injury (which I have to give credit to my friend for originally coming up with) and that being a punctured lung. You can heal from a deflated lung with little to no intervention but it does have lasting effects in some cases and you can risk it deflating once again.


End file.
